Detest Second Best
by EchoEternal
Summary: One-shot, One-sided. Pauline reflects on her relationship with Mario, from being his only girl to being just a friend.


To say that I detest being your second best is quite possibly the greatest understatement of our lives.

Gone are the days that you would whisper sweet nothings to me, tell me plans of the future you wanted for us. I thought it would have ended when that ape of yours first took me away, fearing that I would be taken from you far too soon.

You were courageous, however, and chased him to the greatest heights. Back then, something willed you to come after me. Once upon a time, I would have called it love and drift away on the sweet nothings you had given me.

But that's what they always were: nothings.

That fateful day that your brother called you to work with him on that new job was when our relationship went spiraling downhill. The two of you went to go work in the sewers and disappeared not long after.

At first, I thought that there was some kind of issue with the foul pipe cleaning you two dealt with and that you may have needed to be quarantined to recover. But when I called hospitals, searching for you, they gave me the grim news that they hadn't even heard of your name.

Days, weeks, months would pass, and I would desperately search for you, asking many strangers for help, and calling out your name in the darkest hours of the night. I never did get a response.

You were lost to me. You left, no, abandoned me.

Years went by before I could understand and accept that. I just couldn't settle on the idea that you would leave me. Had I done something wrong? Did your brother need you for more than just a job? What new freedoms did you find out in the world that I couldn't provide for you? Was there another, better woman? When did our love die?

Questions swirled in my mind as I begged them to either be answered or fall silent. Relentlessly, they refused. I did press on, kept living, and I tried to come up with different scenarios of what happened to you each day. Several times, I reached a limit and tried my hardest to move on without you, but to no avail. How does one replace her hero?

It just never sat right with me, that you were gone forever. Or so I thought.

And when I had given up all hope, when I thought we would never be together again, that secret and long forgotten blessing finally happened: you sent word for me.

You wanted me to come and find you, far away, in a distant kingdom that hardly anyone had heard of. Were it not for the photos and the excellent recounting of details, I might not have believed what you wrote to me, what you told me.

But I did, and this time, I chased after you.

It was a long journey, one that took me more time to complete, but following athletes that I had heard knew of your new world, I eventually found my way there. I had finally found my way back to you, back into your life. And I thought that you would enter mine once again, allowing us to resume what we had lost years ago.

However, I didn't account for something: that you had changed.

Meeting you again, I noticed that you were stronger, obviously from your more challenging adventures. Your confidence was greater, brimming with each smile you gave everyone you met. Much about you had changed for the better and I was proud that you had been able to do so.

Yet, with those astounding evolutions came new interests for you as well. You were no longer just my hero, but one to an entire kingdom of people, and even to a royal princess. The ordeals you had overcome were so beyond what we had been through that a life back home with me would be incredibly dull by comparison.

Here, you were a knight in shining red and blue armor. Home, you would be a former carpenter turned plumber in red clothes and blue overalls.

Of course you were happier here than you ever could be with me. Of course, we were no longer as close as I had remembered. What brought me here was not what made you want me back. What was so strong between us before had dissipated.

So, exactly what made you want me back again? Nostalgia? Second chances? Was there something that you had for me, a small and lingering thing, which compelled you to bring me here?

Here, we worked together to send toys out to the kingdom, bringing a new kind of joy to their hearts. A new ape came after me, kidnapping me in a similar way to his ancestor before. And you would rescue me, using the new toys, but relying on the same ferocious drive that you had to get me years ago.

You still cared for me.

He came after us and tried to steal me away from you several times, but you never let him get away with it for long. Still my hero, still saving me, you wouldn't stop until I was safe by your side again.

And yet, when everything was said and done, there were no whispers of sweet nothings. There were no stolen kisses anymore, nor would there be in time to come.

The princess, fair and elegant, had taken a liking to you, and you to her. True, I did have your heart and there was once upon a time that I was the most beautiful of all to you. But I was no living fairy tale. I had learned to live without you and, though I pined for you, begged to have you come back to me, I was still able to survive when you were not at my side.

She needed you. I learned this by asking her many subjects from all around. Though your brother had grown to be a strong hero as well, though he was free for her interests, it was you that would always come to her rescue. It was always you that came to her side in the end, bringing to her a comfort that I knew from a long time forgotten.

You were hers now, and she would be yours. I was no longer welcome.

Time has passed us by again, and you've still needed me. I can ground you in ways that neither she nor your brother can. In some ways, I'm delighted that you still need me, that we still have something that keeps us together. No, it's no longer love, and it is a simple friendship, but it is a tether that bonds us.

And so it would be, that I was to your side on memories and times that called for someone just a bit different in mind, stronger in a way that she wasn't, and a woman that knew you in a way she never learned. Alas for me, that was all it could amount to, and you would still venture on for her, still going back to her.

Though my heart pounds when I see you, when we meet on the occasion, I know that yours does not act the same. You never did cry out for me as I had for you. Though I was a special friend for you now, though you would always be more than that to me, our time together had ended. She is your first priority and love; I'm the second best, to which I detest.

I refuse to let you be the end of me, however. While I still yearn for you, it will come to pass, once all has settled. Some day, I will move on and find another. There will be a day that I find one that allows me to move on from you, and we will be happy with the friendship that we have now.

So, no, I don't hate you, or her, as neither of you hate me. However, I simply cannot live with being anyone's second choice. Some day, I can prove otherwise, and some day, I'll believe it myself. And that is exactly how I will go on again.

There will be a day that my heart no longer aches. And every day is one day sooner.

* * *

><p><em>Ah, the sorrows of a love lost.<em>

_I'm not really a fan of MarioXPauline, since pretty much everyone agrees that Mario moved on to Peach. And yet, poor Pauline has nothing after Mario. You think Luigi and Daisy have it bad being second bananas? Pauline must be the queen of them. She lost her boyfriend to a princess, his brother has other women that are interested in him, she was kidnapped by two different Donkey Kongs and showed no desire for either of them, and there aren't too many guys left for her to pair off with that wouldn't be very strange pairings._

_Honestly, she could very well work independently, and I hope there's a day that Pauline suddenly returns to a main series Mario game. Sure, she made a great return in the Mario VS Donkey Kong games, but it would be nice to see her get recognized by the world again. Pauline will always hold the title of "Mario's first," but Peach is essentially Mario's main love, so they might as well do something else fun with Pauline. It could work._

_As for fandom shipping and whatnot, I'm actually surprised that Pauline doesn't pop up very often. Easiest solution to a Mario/Peach/Bowser love triangle? Use Pauline. Bored of pairing Luigi with Daisy/Rosalina? Use Pauline. Want someone that isn't Mona/whoever for Wario/Waluigi? Well, she won't thank you for it, but Pauline is totally there. I guess it becomes more difficult for people, as the longer Pauline isn't used in the games, the more often she is forgotten as opposed to remembered. Oh well._

_Anyway, here's more of Pauline for anyone interested._


End file.
